


Case Study: The Elliot–Wentworth Incident

by lirin



Category: Oxford Time Travel Universe - Connie Willis, Persuasion - Jane Austen
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 10:50:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 7,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5453984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In your other classes, you have encountered the intersection of time travel theory and time travel ethics: are historians capable of affecting the past, and if so, should they? We will begin our study of the uses of primary sources by looking at that question from a different point of view—not how do we as historians answer that question today, but how did historians handle it two decades ago? Your coursepack contains the primary sources for this first week, where we will focus on the Elliot–Wentworth incident (Feb 2059/Aug 1806–Feb 1815).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 2077 – Professor's introduction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BryroseA](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BryroseA/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide, BryroseA! When I found that I was familiar with two of the fandoms you requested, I just had to combine them. I hope you enjoy what I came up with!
> 
> Acknowledgements:  
> First of all, my beta, drayton, was wonderful as always, and a great help with this story.  
> Secondly, "[A Calendar for _Persuasion_](http://www.jimandellen.org/austen/persuasion.calendar.html)" was a useful reference in structuring the 19th-century portions of this work.

We will begin our look at approaches to the study of history with an extended discussion of primary sources. Although on-location observation is now the most common means of studying history, it has a rather short history itself. Much more time-honoured is the analysis of primary sources. Research via the careful inspection of primary sources was the predominant method of historical research prior to the invention of time travel, and must not be discounted even now. Over the next few weeks, we will examine a variety of primary sources and discuss what we can learn about the individuals involved, even though we lack the opportunity to meet most of them in person. Reading a letter written by an individual can be as enlightening as a face-to-face conversation; and sometimes even more so, because a person might commit to paper thoughts that he or she would scarcely confide in a casual acquaintance, such as a recently-met historian.

Our case study in this first week is the Elliot–Wentworth incident, which occurred nearly two decades ago. It was relatively minor—I doubt many of you will have heard of it—but will hopefully provide an accessible starting point for our discussion of primary sources. The most notable facet of this historical excursion is that it contains a drop that is the closest any historian has come to the Battle of Waterloo. (Time travel theorists suggest this drop may have opened because the historians involved had no intention of travelling to that time, or consequentially, of interfering with the Waterloo divergence point.)

The primary sources included in the coursepack were collected from a variety of sources. Some were given to me personally; some are from the University archives and the net logs; others are recent gifts to the University from descendants of the authors.

Primary sources do not come nicely organised in chronological order the way on-location observation (at least in the context of a single drop) does. As a small reminder of this, I have not organised the coursepack in chronological order either, although hopefully you will find the order logical in its own way. Remember that, just as in modern experiential history, everyone has their biases. Concentrate on the themes that stand out to you, and I hope you will all learn to perform more in-depth synthesis as the term progresses and you gain more experience with primary sources.


	2. 2076 – Book excerpt

(Makoto Ishiwaka and Colin Templer. _Time Travel: Reflections on Its Past, Recommendations for the Future_. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2076.)

Over the years, historians have come to realise that the space-time continuum is much stronger than was originally thought. While Darby and Gentilla used an upsilon constant of 0.819—revised to 0.838 in their later work—recent evidence suggests that a more accurate value for the upsilon constant may be as large as 0.895. Attwater has even suggested 0.902, although attempts to replicate his calculations have not been successful, and this suggested value must therefore regrettably be rejected.[a]

For such a ubiquitous value, the upsilon constant has been challenging to measure. The Davies closure of 2060–2070, although distressing for those who were immediately involved in it, was of great benefit to time-travel theorists in that it conferred many opportunities for estimations of the upsilon constant. In particular, we have the weekly measurements by Fujisaki, extending from 2061 through to the end of the closure.[b]

It seems self-evident that historians do indeed affect the events that they visit; no time-travel theorist has been able to convincingly prove otherwise. However, an examination of the Darby continuum equation[c] will show that in all but the most extreme cases, the space-time continuum will easily be able to recover from these effects. Such incidents as the Davies closure (2060-2070) and the earlier Elliot–Wentworth incident (Feb 2059) provide obvious evidence of this phenomenon.

One major question that remains to be studied is whether the upsilon constant is indeed a constant, or whether it can be affected (and, perhaps, strengthened) by our actions. We will address this further in Chapter 5: “Questions on the Upsilon Constant’s Constancy”.

[a] Attwater, Gavin. “The Upsilon Constant: New Estimates of an Old Standby.” _Time Travel Quarterly_ 57.2 (2072): 46-54.  
[b] Fujisaki, Shoji. “Measurements for Upsilon Calculation During the Recent Closure.” _Time Travel Quarterly_ 56.1 (2071): 88-101.  
[c]


	3. 17 Feb 2059 – Preliminary incident report

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD INCIDENT REPORT FORM—TIME TRAVEL  
**No.** 00237

 **Type of Incident:** ☐ Increased Slippage ( >200% era mean), ☐ Property Damage, ☐ Property Abandonment in the Past, ☐ Physical Injury, ☐ Assault, ☐ Vandalism, ☐ Unauthorised Net Access, ☑ Unauthorised Ancestor Interaction, ☐ Attempted History Modification (Non-familial), ☐ Other (Please specify: _______________)

 **Personal details (person involved in incident):**  
**Full Name:** Charles G. Bowden  
**Address:** _Eddritch—get this info from Bowden_  
**Student ID:** _ditto_  
**Date of Birth:** 2036? _ditto_  
☑ **Male** / ☐ **Female**  
**Job title:** Student  
**Department:** Time Travel

 **Time and date of incident:** 17 Feb 2059 / 3 Aug 1806

**Accident or incident details - give a full description of what happened, including details of any injury or damage (required):**

_Eddritch—When Henry submits his report, find the applicable portion and insert it here before submitting this._

**Describe the action to be taken to prevent a recurrence of this type of accident or incident.**

~~I will tell all my students for the five thousand-and-FIRST time never to enter the net without full authorisation.~~

~~Encourage Bowden to accidentally kill his ancestors so that he no longer exists, creating a paradox but at least he’ll no longer be here causing problems…~~

Students will be encouraged to meet with counsellors who understand the unique stressors graduate students face, and who can help them maintain psychological stability in difficult times.

(Also, we’ll look into getting a better lock on the door of the lab.)

  
**Name of person completing form (contact details will be helpful):** James Dunworthy, Balliol  
**Name of supervisor or administrator:** N. Ranniford

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This document is loosely inspired by the actual University of Oxford Accident/Incident Report Form, available on their website.


	4. 31 Jan 2059 – Letter

31 Jan 2059

Charlie—

Please bear in mind that your mother’s birthday is coming up at the end of next month. I do hope you will bring a better present for her than you did last year. A basket of soap indicates a lack of thoughtfulness towards the individuality of the recipient that is wholly unacceptable for a son towards his mother.

A few ideas to get you started, since obviously you are incapable of selecting a present without guidance—

Your mother has recently resumed her interest in genealogy. She has been focusing mostly on the direct Bowden line on my side, and the Wentworths on her side. Perhaps you might find a book or artifact relating to these families or the times they lived in. I’m sure you can think of something; otherwise, why would I have spent so much money getting you a good education in history?

A backup option is always chocolate. Nothing plain of course. You might pick some up at Harrods or Fortnum & Mason on your way home if you haven’t bothered to take time away from your studies before then.

The birthday party will start at 5pm sharp on 28 Feb. Manage your time wisely; I don’t want to hear excuses about essays or revising or whatever it was that you claimed made you late last year.

Your loving father,  
C. H. Bowden


	5. 3 Aug 1806 – Letter

Somersetshire, August 3, 1806

My dear Maria,

We have had a narrow escape. You must be wondering by now why I have not yet arrived in Bath, and I trust this letter will serve as an explanation.

I was on the verge of departing—was actually in my carriage and being driven down the road, in fact—when we hit a rut and completely lost a wheel. I must complain to the carriage-maker at my first opportunity, as such shoddy workmanship is completely unacceptable. There was nothing to be done but to sit and wait while the driver attempted to replace the wheel. After a while, a young gentleman walked by and offered to help, but Higgins was just finishing and did not need assistance.

The young man was headed to Kellynch Hall. He said that the Elliots were distant relations of some of his close friends—or close friends of some of his distant relations; I am quite confused as to which is actually the case. It seems to me that he stated both at one point or another, but of course they cannot both be true—or at least it would be quite unlikely. His name is Mr Charles Smith. Do you know a Mr Charles Smith? He looked familiar, but I could not place him and felt it would be rude to ask too directly where he was from. But of course we could not leave him to walk all the way to Kellynch, and I scarcely needed an excuse to visit my dear friends one last time before my departure, so we turned the carriage about and conveyed Mr Smith to Kellynch.

And oh! what a surprise there was for us there, for what did I find but that my darling Anne had accepted the proposal of a young sailor of no account. He is only a captain with grand hopes for the future of capturing prizes and making his fortune. This of course means that he has no fortune in the present—not to mention no ship of which to be captain—but that seemed of little moment to him and to poor besotted Anne; they both seemed content to spend hours gazing at each other, with no thoughts toward the unsuitability of the match. I cringe to think what Anne’s dear departed mother would have thought of the situation, and I know she would have expected me to do what I must to alleviate it. I was quite glad that my chance encounter with Mr Smith brought me to Kellynch before it was too late, and I intend to remain here in Somersetshire until I, with the aid of Anne’s father, have successfully run off this sailor.

I must ask you not to breathe a word of this to anyone. I would hate for this unfortunate entanglement to have any effect on the future expectations of one who is as dear to me as a daughter. I am sure that Anne will be amenable to my persuasion and will soon realise how unwise her choice has been; and once she does, we can put this regrettable episode completely behind us, as almost none of our connections have any idea of what has happened.

Yours, sincerely,

E—— Russell


	6. 17 Feb 2059 – Laboratory transcript

The following is an automated transcript.  
Sounds quieter than 50 dB have not been transcribed.

Oxford Time Travel Laboratory A  
17 February 2059 18:00-18:30

Please remember that audio is recorded 24 hours a day in all British time travel laboratories. Any private citizen may request a transcript by contacting the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, as specified in the Time Travel Transparency Act 2048.  


*** Begin requested excerpt ***  
*** 17 February 2059 18:00 ***

18:00 UNIDENTIFIED: [whistling]  
18:03 R. HAANRAADTS: Where’s the— oh, there you are.  
18:03 UNIDENTIFIED: [whistling]  
18:04 R. HAANRAADTS: Lord, who throughout these forty days da-da-da-da-da-dah. Teach us with thee to something sin, and close—  
18:04 J. DUNWORTHY: Where’s Bowden?  
18:04 R. HAANRAADTS: He’s not back yet, sir.  
18:04 J. DUNWORTHY: You sent him on a drop?  
18:04 R. HAANRAADTS: Yes, sir.  
18:04 J. DUNWORTHY: Who authorised this?  
18:04 R. HAANRAADTS: Um—you did, sir. It says so right here.  
18:05 UNIDENTIFIED: [door slamming]  
18:05 R. HAANRAADTS: Um—isn’t paperwork supposed to stay in the building? [pause] Oh well.  
18:06 UNIDENTIFIED: [whistling]

18:11 J. DUNWORTHY: Is Bowden still in the past?  
18:11 R. HAANRAADTS: Yes, sir; it’s only been 5 minutes since you asked, so he’s still in the past.  
18:11 J. DUNWORTHY: When’s his next check-in?  
18:11 R. HAANRAADTS: There are no check-ins, sir. It’s just a short assignment, as you would have seen if you’d read the paperwork before you signed it. A twelve-hour real-time drop; leave at seven AM, return at seven PM.  
18:11 J. DUNWORTHY: You don’t understand the gravity of the situation, Mr Haanraadts. I didn’t sign this. Eddritch, you didn’t sign this on my behalf, did you?  
18:11 G. EDDRITCH: I don’t think so, sir. It doesn’t look familiar.  
18:12 R. HAANRAADTS: But you must have—  
18:12 J. DUNWORTHY: Have you never heard of forgery?  
18:12 R. HAANRAADTS: Um—  
18:12 J. DUNWORTHY: Bowden forged this. He did not have authorisation to use the net.  
18:12 R. HAANRAADTS: But—but that’s—that’s against the rules!  
18:12 J. DUNWORTHY: Yes. Yes, it is. Can you start opening the net early just in case he’s already at the drop site?  
18:12 R. HAANRAADTS: It will take a few minutes to adjust the settings, but I’ll open it as soon as I can get them set.  
18:12 J. DUNWORTHY: If Bowden’s not there, we’re going to have to go back and look for him. Eddritch, who among our more competent historians is available right now?  
18:13 G. EDDRITCH: Well, I think Siekert’s not very busy—  
18:13 J. DUNWORTHY: I should think that ‘competent historian’ implies, at the very least, ‘not a first-year undergraduate.’ What about Henry and Kindle, are they around?  
18:13 G. EDDRITCH: I think so—  
18:13 J. DUNWORTHY: Go find them and bring them here. [pause] Now.

18:22 R. HAANRAADTS: Sir, I can open the net now.  
18:22 J. DUNWORTHY: Good. Do it.  
*** 17 February 2059 18:22 Net open to 2 August 1806 18:22 ***  
18:23 C. BOWDEN: Wait, wait, wait! [panting] I’m here!  
*** 17 February 2059 18:23 Net closed ***  
18:24 C. BOWDEN: Um.  
18:25 J. DUNWORTHY: Is that all you have to say?  
18:25 C. BOWDEN: Um—I think I may have broken something.  
18:25 J. DUNWORTHY: What?  
18:25 C. BOWDEN: I think I may have prevented my ancestors from marrying.  
18:25 J. DUNWORTHY: What!  
18:25 C. BOWDEN: It was an accident! Please, sir, I didn’t mean to.  
18:25 J. DUNWORTHY: I should certainly hope not. What were you thinking?  
18:25 C. BOWDEN: Well, I just wanted to meet them. Because it’s my mum’s birthday, and I thought I could write about what they were like. But the lady who gave me a ride to their house was very angry when she discovered that they were engaged, because apparently she didn’t know, and she was insisting that they break off the engagement. And now I don’t know what to do!  
18:26 J. DUNWORTHY: Well, to begin with, you don’t set foot in the net again for a very long time, assuming you aren’t sent down for this. And we are going to find some other historians who can fix this, and you are going to brief them fully on what happened so they can go back in time and ameliorate the situation. And I fail to see what your mother’s birthday has to do with any of this but frankly I don’t think I want to know.  
18:26 C. BOWDEN: Um.

18:29 G. EDDRITCH: I found them!  
18:29 N. HENRY: What’s wrong? Time lag?  
18:29 R. HAANRAADTS: More like getting yelled at.  
18:29 J. DUNWORTHY: That will do. Thank you for coming so promptly. I need a historian or two to go to 1808. To play matchmaker.  
18:29 V. KINDLE: What!

*** End requested excerpt ***


	7. 17 Feb 2059 – Requisition form

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD REQUISITION FORM—TIME TRAVEL

RUSH ORDER

 **Date of request:** 17 Feb 2059  
**Date of destination:** 3 Aug 1806  
**Number of historians:** 2

 **Historian name:** Ned Henry  
**Cover name:** Edward “Ned” Bolton  
☑ **Male** / ☐ **Female**  
**Items requested:**  
One (1) complete set of attire  
Luggage suitable for a 3-day journey  
Five pounds (in coins of assorted denominations)

 **Historian name:** Verity Kindle  
**Cover name:** Elizabeth “Eliza” Bolton  
☐ **Male** / ☑ **Female**  
**Items requested:**  
One (1) complete set of attire  
Luggage suitable for a 3-day journey  
Five pounds (in coins of assorted denominations)


	8. 27 Nov 1814 – Letter

Lyme, Sunday November 27th, 1814

Dear Anne,

It is with great pleasure that I can inform you that Louisa continues to improve. She is still very weak, but her colour is less pale than when last you saw her, and she was able to eat a bit of soup today.

I have been encouraging everyone else to go for walks and not always sit by Louisa. ‘Tis said that too many cooks spoil one’s broth, and I think Louisa is in need of peace and quiet more than anything else. After a great deal of discussion, I was able to convince most of our party that it would not be inappropriate for them to seek some small amusements among the beautiful scenery of Lyme—although unsurprisingly, none of us have any wish to venture back to the Cobb.

A Mr and Mrs Bolton arrived here the day after you left. They claim a slight connection to Captain Wentworth—friends of his brother’s wife, I believe. As they are unfamiliar with Lyme, they have needed much advice as to places to go and the best walks to take. Captain Wentworth was out with them all day yesterday, walking somewhere by the sea I believe, and did not come to visit Louisa once. I was surprised that he would do so, and leave her all day with only the company of myself and Captain Benwick (who insisted upon reading poetry aloud to her for hours). Perhaps I was more convincing than I realised in assuring him that my care for her would be quite sufficient; but I would think he would wish to spend more of his time with the woman with whom he seemed to have an understanding.

Mr and Mrs Musgrove arrived safely yesterday. I am sure that it is of great comfort to Louisa to have her parents here, although she has not spoken of it much. She has not spoken much at all, preferring to lie quietly in bed.

I do hope all is well with you.

Yours, sincerely,

M—— Harville


	9. 17 Feb 2059 – Memo

MEMO

To: Head of Time Travel  
From: James Dunworthy  
Date: 17 Feb 2059  
Subject: Update on this evening’s incident remediation

This is a brief note to inform you of the latest developments in Henry and Kindle’s mission to ameliorate Charles Bowden’s actions earlier in the day, of which I have already informed you.

Henry and Kindle were sent flash-time to what we had intended to be 1808. Captain Wentworth’s first successes in the Napoleonic Wars came at that time, and we thought he would be most amenable to marriage on having just gained a fortune. Unfortunately, the undergraduate tech made a miscalculation in the coordinates and sent our historians to November 1814 instead. All was not completely lost; after several days of enquiries, they were able to locate Captain Wentworth. However, when they finally arrived in the town Wentworth was in, they discovered both that they had just missed Miss Anne Elliot, and that Captain Wentworth was perceived by all to be practically engaged to a Miss Louisa Musgrove.

After two days in Lyme, Henry judged that their excuses were wearing thin, and made the decision to return (which took another day for them to reach the drop site). He and Kindle have ideas for further actions, so we will be sending them through again, but not until morning. Despite only an hour having passed here, they are of course quite exhausted, having been gone for nearly a week.

JD/ge


	10. 17 Feb 1815 – Letter

Bath, Friday Feb 17, 1815

Dear Mary,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. We are all very well, both in health and spirits. Father and Elizabeth have been frequently to see Lady Dalrymple. As for me, I have walked out several times this week, although not as often as I would like, as it has rained several times. I frequently encounter the Crofts, who also enjoy a promenade about town. And just yesterday I saw Captain Wentworth, who apparently has just arrived in town. I was unaware he had plans to come to Bath.

On Wednesday, I and Lady Russell finally made the acquaintance of Mr and Mrs Bolton, whom you met in Lyme when you were nursing Louisa. I am not sure where they have been since they left you in November; they mentioned Shropshire, but when I asked them whether they had said Captain Wentworth while they were there, they explained that they were not actually staying in Shropshire but that it was simpler to give that excuse than to explain all the places they had travelled to, so I was left vaguely puzzled. I was glad to make their acquaintance; they are very friendly people. They invited Lady Russell and me to dinner tomorrow night, but we had to decline as we both had prior engagements.

I must close this letter, for Lady Russell has just arrived to take me out in her carriage.

Yours, affectionately,

Anne


	11. 18 Feb 2059 – Incident remediation report

_18/2/59_  
_Mr Dunworthy,_  
_Here’s the draft copy of my report on the incident remediation mission. I already had Verity look over it for me, and I’ll go ahead and type it up for submission once I receive your feedback._  
_—Ned_

Incident Remediation Report  
Historians: Ned Henry and Verity Kindle  
Report author: Ned Henry  
Destination time and location: Bath, 14–25 Feb 1815

Determining our space-time coordinates was much less painful than last time, as there was only mild (a few hours) slippage instead of being off by nearly a decade as in our previous drop.

We arrived on February 14 and attempted first to find lodging and establish our _bona fides_ as legitimate travellers free from suspicion. After renting rooms in a small but respectable house, Verity and I split up to promenade around town and hopefully run across one or the other of our quarry. Our plan was to have casual conversations with them that just happened to bring up the constancy of love, how in love we were with our spouse and don’t they wish they could find that with somebody. (Verity and I are still only engaged as we’ve decided to wait to get married until we’ve both graduated; but we are married in our cover identities as Mr and Mrs Bolton.)

It was not until the next day, Wednesday the 15th, that we ran across either of them. Verity and I were walking past the Elliots’ house (for approximately the 20th time that day; I hope nobody was looking out the windows) when their friend Lady Russell drove up in her carriage to take Anne out. I feigned vague recognition and followed it with various comments about how highly her friends in Lyme had spoken of her and how they said Verity & I had to meet her. (Particular emphasis on Captain Wentworth, of course, but with care not to overdo it, which might ruin everything.) Mentioning Wentworth nearly backfired because apparently he had been staying in Shropshire, which was where our thrown-together backstory had us spending the last few months, so we mumbled vague excuses and hoped she wouldn’t mention our alleged presence there to Wentworth. (On the bright side, at least now we knew Wentworth was in town. Having both of our targets in the same town was an improvement over our experience yesterday/three months prior.)

Verity had invited Lady Russell and Miss Elliot to dinner—mostly, I think, in an attempt to distract them from my slipshod excuses about Shropshire and whether or not we had actually been there. But they both made the sort of polite excuses that leave one wondering whether your invitees are _really_ as dashedly busy as they claim, or if they just don’t want to spend time with you. We feared it was the latter, and decided not to push our luck. We spent the next few days attending the theatre, walking about town, and generally trying to act like contemps.

On Monday the 20th, we had our first encounter with Captain Wentworth. I had been very worried that he would ask unanswerable questions about Shropshire, but he seemed very distracted and scarcely asked anything at all. I had no idea as to the cause of his distraction, and feared it applied to all the occupants of Bath equally; he barely spoke to me and I thought in this frame of mind he might let Miss Elliot walk past him without even noticing. (Latter events would of course prove that I was quite incorrect on this.)

The 24th was the next day that we ran across anyone of interest. It was not one of our intended targets, however, but Mr Charles Musgrove, Miss Elliot’s brother-in-law, whom we had also met in Lyme, and who thankfully was also distracted enough not to notice that we didn’t look much different from what would have been three months ago for him. However, the source of his distraction was a bit simpler than Wentworth’s: not a pretty face but a pretty gun. Well, guns in general, and one gun in particular, which a gunsmith had offered him a good deal on and he was trying to decide whether or not to buy it. He would talk for 10 minutes on all the reasons he should buy it, and then talk for the next 10 minutes on all the reasons that it was not actually a particularly good gun and how it was similar to another gun he already had. I know just enough about guns to not make a complete fool of myself when contemps ask me if I’d like to go shooting with them, but my knowledge is pretty much limited to “always treat the gun like it’s loaded”, “don’t point it at anybody”, and “pull here once you’ve pointed it in the direction you want to shoot”. Thus, my conversation with Mr Musgrove was mainly limited to murmured agreement on my part every time he said something that seemed to require an answer. (This ranged from “So I suppose I probably shouldn’t buy it” to “And it’s really a very good bargain for such a well-made gun”—whatever he said, I agreed with it.) Eventually, he either grew tired of talking my ear off or realised that he was repeating the same talking points for the third time, and he distractedly took his leave and wandered off down the road, leaving me doubting that I had accomplished anything.

The following day, February 25, would turn out to be our final day in the past, although we didn’t know it at the time. At breakfast, Verity and I talked over the situation and decided that, one way or another, we had to accomplish something that day, as we were tired of doing nothing. We set out together to wander the streets, and hopefully run across one of our targets, but the streets were nearly empty as it was pouring rain. We decided to disregard the wetness ourselves and press on, ducking under awnings or into doorways when the rain became particularly heavy. Finally, Verity and I went into a haberdasher’s and pretended to need a new ribbon for her hat. Unfortunately, it was right while we were in the middle of making this purchase that I finally caught a glimpse of Miss Anne Elliot. She was walking down the street directly outside the shop, and I didn’t hesitate. I dodged past the haberdasher and his spools of ribbon, and headed for the door. I don’t really want to talk about what happened next, but I’ll just say that while I reached the door, I was not vertical while doing so. The man really needed to keep his ribbons neatly wound on the spools and not hanging loose where they could trip poor unsuspecting people.

By the time we had escaped the store with many repeated apologies (fortunately he only made us pay for the one ribbon we were already buying and not for everything that had spilt), Miss Elliot was of course nowhere in sight. Verity insisted that we continue walking about, although I wanted nothing more than to get in out of the drizzle and nurse my black eye and skinned knees. I may have made a few comments about upstart young historians at this point that were not in the best of taste. Fortunately for Mr Bowden, he was 100 km and 250 years away so I limited myself to words.

Not long after, we ran across Mr Musgrove, who was still thinking (and talking) about that bargain gun. I was too distracted by my injuries to have much patience for his indecisiveness, so after a minute I interrupted him and said “Just buy the gun. You know you want the gun, so just buy it already and stop telling me why you want it.” With this, I pushed past him and stalked off down the street. I could hear Verity making apologetic farewells behind me.

“What did you do that for?” she asked when she caught up with me.

“He was getting on my nerves,” I said.

“But what if his indecisiveness about the gun is an important part of the past?” she asked.

I sighed and tried not to rub my painful eye. “If it’s important enough, then hopefully the space-time continuum will protect it. And if it’s not, then I’m not sure I particularly care right now. I’m tired of being stuck in the past trying to fix other people’s problems.”

“Well, you’re tired of being here, and I’m tired of being here,” said Verity, ever practical, “so the sooner we get this fixed the sooner we can go home.” She looked back towards where we’d left Musgrove. “Do you suppose he knows where Miss Elliot or Captain Wentworth are?”

“There’s only one way to find out,” I said. “Let’s follow him.”

And follow him we did, although my charming fiancée decided to multitask by spending the time listing increasingly impractical alternative actions as disproof of my “only one way” statement. However, I maintain that kidnapping Musgrove to the 21st century and bribing him with a modern gun, although it would technically have been another way to find out whether Musgrove knew where our quarry was, was so completely outside the realm of possible actions as not to count against me. Besides, the net probably wouldn’t have opened for it. [I should note at this point that none of Verity’s suggestions were serious. Actually, I’m probably giving too much detail, and most of that paragraph can go. Mr Dunworthy, please feel free to cut out any of my digressions that you wish.]

And in the spirit of brevity and avoiding digressions, I will finish this report by saying: we found the house where both individuals were (yes, at the same time!); we lay in wait outside the house until one of them (Wentworth) came out; we attempted to follow him but were hindered by a stray cat; and upon finally catching up with him we discovered that the space-time continuum had solved matters without our help.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit too brief. Verity insists I should at least elaborate on the cat. I’m not sure whether that’s because she thinks the report needs it or because the cat looked like our Penwiper and she wants me to say nice things about it. Well, if it’s the latter she’s out of luck, because it wasn’t a very nice cat. It tripped me. And it followed that up by not quite tripping Verity, but weaving about her in such a fashion that she only saved herself from tripping by sitting down on a curb rather abruptly. (In my original draft I said it tripped both of us, but she objects to that phrasing.) We have Penwiper better trained than that. Well, Penwiper has us trained. We allow her to roam free in the rafters and cabinet-tops that she considers her domain, and in exchange she doesn’t sneak up behind us more than once or twice a week. But I was talking about this cat, whose name I don’t know. After tripping me and (arguably) Verity, it bounded off, pleased with itself. I shook my fist at it as I struggled to my feet and offered Verity a hand. (Not the same hand; right hand expressing my feelings, left hand being chivalrous. Multi-tasking is a useful skill.) We’d lost Wentworth but Verity was pretty sure she knew which way he’d gone, so we walked in that direction. But what did we meet but that same ~~godf~~ ~~blast~~ extremely problematic cat. It crashed into my shins, ran a loop around Verity, crashed into my shins again since I hadn’t fallen over the first time, hurled itself against Verity again, and then trod in victory over my fallen body as I _had_ fallen over the second time. Did I mention that it had been raining all day?

Verity helped me up. I tried not to say anything too negative about cats, since I do like cats in general—just not this cat in particular. Now rather more muddy than not, we headed once again in the direction in which we hoped to find Captain Wentworth.

“What will we do when we find him?” Verity asked suddenly.

“I have no idea,” I said, and tripped over that ~~stupid~~ ~~terrible~~ THAT CAT for the third time.

The next few seconds are a bit of a blur, but eventually the cat and I untangled ourselves. It fled the scene, uninjured and presumably pleased with itself, while I—neither uninjured nor pleased—sat in the mud and wished I could similarly flee. Finally, we headed on again. I doubted that speeches on the steadfastness of love were unlikely to be convincing when coming from an entirely-mud-covered near-stranger, but Mr Dunworthy had given us a job to do and by Jove, we were going to do it.

We spotted Captain Wentworth in front of us, walking with Anne Elliot and Charles Musgrove. That seemed promising. Verity nudged me in the ribs. “Look!”

“Yes, I see them,” I whispered. “What shall we do?”

“I don’t know,” she responded. “We have to think of something. Quick, they’re splitting up!”

They were indeed making farewells, but after a minute it became apparent that Mr Musgrove was the one who was leaving, and Miss Elliot and Captain Wentworth were continuing on together. This was promising. Another minute, and it became clear that things were more than promising, they were actually happening.

“I think it’s fixed,” Verity murmured. We were hiding behind a tree, although the way our targets were behaving, I doubt they would have noticed if we had jumped up in front of them waving our hands before tripping over a cat and going through the net while doing a handstand.

“I do believe it is,” I said. I gave her a kiss, as it seemed the popular thing to do in that particular roadway at that time.

Our targets were wandering off hand in hand, and I decided to let them go. They appeared to have fixed things up between them, and I thought that a mud-covered raver coming up to them might be more counterproductive than not.

“Back to the drop, Watson?” I asked, as they disappeared from sight.

She took my hand, even though it was absolutely covered in mud. Now that’s what I call love. “Back to the drop.”

So did we actually accomplish anything? Perhaps one of our conversations with the interested parties earlier in the week served more purpose than we were aware of. Or maybe the space-time continuum was doing just fine without our help and was laughing at us as only an ephemeral concept can laugh while we tripped over cats and struggled through the mud, thinking we were making accomplishments. At this point, as long as I can get a shower and nurse my swollen black eye in my own house with my own semi-cooperative cat, I don’t particularly need to know what was happening behind the scenes. I’ve had unproductive drops before, and at least in this one, whether I had a part in it or not, it looks like our targets are going to live happily ever after.


	12. 24 Feb 2059 – Letter

24 Feb 2059

Dear Mother,

I am terribly sorry to tell you that something has come up here at school and I am going to have to stay in Oxford for the weekend. I know how disappointing it is for you not to have your entire family together for your birthday, and I apologise for being absent at such a significant time.

I was trying to do some research on our forebears that I could write up as part of your birthday present, but I’ve hit a snag. I hope you’ll understand how it is, since you’ve done some genealogy research yourself. Perhaps I’ll be able to have it done by Christmas, but in the meantime I’ve ordered a hamper of chocolates for your birthday present; it should arrive Friday.

Once again, I apologise for missing your birthday celebration and I hope you won’t be angry.

Sincerely,  
Charlie


	13. 28 Feb 1815 – Letter

Bath, 28 February 1815

Dear Benwick,

I am having an extremely enjoyable trip to Bath. Actually, why should I hedge my words when writing to you, who of all people can understand, being so recently engaged yourself? In truth, my trip to Bath has been successful beyond my wildest dreams. I have asked Miss Anne Elliot to be my wife, and she has given me the greatest pleasure in the world by acquiescing.

We became engaged scarcely a few hours after I sent you my last letter, so if you detect some slight change in tone between this and my last you may guess what is responsible.

I do not know how to spend the rest of today. My head is still in a whirl, even though I have now been engaged nearly three whole days. I had intended this afternoon to return a call from the Boltons, but they seem to have left town abruptly and unexpectedly. I suppose I might as well go visit Anne again, since I have nothing else to do.

I wish you and your Louisa all the happiness that I have found myself.

Sincerely,

Frederick Wentworth


	14. 30 Jun 2059 – Memo

MEMO

To: Head of Time Travel  
From: James Dunworthy  
Date: 30 Jun 2059  
Subject: Update on Charles Bowden

Mr Bowden has completed his series of essays on proper behaviour of a historian and I have approved them. The last step for him to be removed from probation is for you to approve the essays as well. Do not feel you have to approve them unless you are completely satisfied; I returned them to him twice for rewriting before I approved them myself.

I hear that he has found new housing for the upcoming year with Michael Davies and Shakira Ajam. It is my hope that those two, both slightly older than he and with good scholastic records, might be steadying influences on him. He needs it, if he is to succeed as a historian.

JD/ge

Enclosures (4): Essays for your consideration and approval


	15. 2058 – Book excerpt

(Ishiwaka, Makoto. _The Impending Threat of Time Travel_. London: Routledge, 2058.)

Not much is known about the space-time continuum or the forces that drive it. Is it controlled by something—some god or higher power that directs the courses of our lives? Or is it driven merely by chance, and is it only by chance that we have survived this long while meddling in it?

One thing we do know is that the space-time continuum has so far been strong enough to cancel out the effects of meddlers. But this cannot keep up forever. The upsilon constant (currently estimated at 0.838, although 0.85 has been suggested) could be said in layman’s terms to represent the strength of this self-correcting force. As long as it is less than 1, every time travelling excursion will always be a risky proposition, and it should not be treated as casually as it currently is.


	16. 15 Apr 2059 – Letter

15 April 2059

My dear Colin,

Thank you for your letter. I am very glad to hear that your grades improved last term and that you were able to keep yourself sufficiently entertained over the Easter holidays. (I am a bit concerned, however, at the means of your entertainment: won’t your mother’s live-in eventually notice that his pet fish have altered both in number and in colouration?)

Your allegations are unfounded; I have not been wilfully withholding information about important events in time travel. Rather, the events in February were quite unimportant and I had simply forgotten to mention them. I was distracted by my concerns over your coursework, not to mention the thrilling adventures of Winston the Goldfish. (You never did tell me why you named the fish Winston. Is it in reference to the 20th century Prime Minister? And if so, is the name intended as a compliment, or otherwise?)

Since you asked, however, I suppose I ought to tell you a bit about what happened. We had a student undertake time travel without authorisation. When the student returned to the present, he was under the impression that he had broken history by preventing his ancestors’ engagement. We sent two other historians back to attempt to reconcile the two ancestors, and the ancestors in question did indeed undertake a second engagement nearly a decade after their first—whether due to some interference of our historians or entirely of their own volition remains unknown.

The space-time continuum is a confusing thing. In one sense, our historians were always there, meddling in Miss Elliot’s and Mr Wentworth’s lives. In another sense, if Mr Bowden (our wayward student) had not visited his ancestors, no other historians would have either. In that latter instance, perhaps it was their first engagement and not the second that led to their marriage—we don’t know. Whether both of these senses of the past are true simultaneously or just the former is a question for time-travel theoreticians. But one thing is clear: interacting with one’s ancestors is an extremely hazardous undertaking and should always be avoided. If, as you propose, you become a historian one day, I hope you will never do any such thing.

I have enclosed “The Crusades’ Effect on the Mediterranean: A Geopolitical Overview”. If you can take time from your schoolwork to sneak into classrooms and leave gobstoppers in the master’s chair, then you can find time to read books that will prepare you for possible future fields of study, as this one will. You should also explore at least the first few chapters of Wheaton’s “A Prelude to Temporal Physics”, which your school library should have; it is an accessible overview of the maths involved in time-travel that will give you a leg up when you start your studies here. You might also be interested in “The Impending Threat of Time Travel”, published last year, and “The Enduring Spectre of Time”, out last month; both are written for general audiences but still contain questions on time-travel theory that are worthy of consideration.

Please do pay attention to your studies, and remember to write back as soon as you have time. 

Best regards,

James Dunworthy

Enclosures:  
The Crusades’ Effect on the Mediterranean: A Geopolitical Overview, by J. A. Monahan  
Two (2) gobstoppers. For normal consumption only.


	17. 2077 – Professor's conclusion

I hope this case study was an accessible introduction for you all, and perhaps even enjoyable. The study of history is not all dry dates and dusty books. When we time-travel as historians, we realise firsthand how real the people we study are; but they can also become real to us through our reading, and I hope this has happened for you.

I expect your first essay, on approaches to primary sources with examples drawn from this reading, by Monday.

N.H.


End file.
